You know about the Library of Alexandria, right? You know, the famed repository of all the wisdom and learning of the ancient world. And you know how the library was destroyed, right? It was set on fire and all of those scrolls went up in smoke…
…or did they? Like most famous stories from ancient history, this one, too, is most likely false. So, how was the library lost? And, more importantly, what does that have to say to us, here in the 21st century, as we careen off the cliff into the abyss of the “post-literate” society?
Find out all the fascinating details in this week’s edition of The Corbett Report Subscriber editorial.
Is there an article or am I missing something?
“No article” – I bet there are some temporary technical difficulties.
Here is the SubStack
The Library of Alexandria is NOT on Fire
https://corbettreport.substack.com/p/the-library-of-alexandria-is-not
Thanks
Monday July 27, 2026 (Japan time) – James Corbett
Episode 506 – They Don’t Want You To Read…
https://corbettreport.com/they-dont-want-you-to-read/
The Episode’s 41:29 minute video presentation by James Corbett is directly related to the article:
The Library of Alexandria is NOT on Fire
Also, at the end of the video Corbett refers to the two upcoming livestreams…
The Independent Media Alliance “Books That Inspire”
…and…
The FLNWO conversation on Foucault’s Pendulum
[You can read about those two events above. They are below the article.]
Maybe this is kind of true, but people do still read. If they didn’t, Barnes&Noble would have gone out of business in the 90s.
I see it as tastes and languages evolve.
It’s like when a certain type of person might complain that “people don’t listen to music anymore,” and the music they’re referring to, is like, Barber Shop. People still go to concerts, just not those concerts.
This book that Corbett chose, Foucault’s Pendulum, I believe was originally written in Italian and was translated into English. It was also written in the 80s, by an academic. For me, it isn’t an easy read. Part of the reason is that I can’t hear the music of the words. It’s a book that was written for people who are not me.
Good literature, in my opinion, is subjective to some degree. It should challenge the reader in some way, provide a mirror, evoke emotions, pose uncomfortable scenarios that want to be resolved. It should spark the reader’s imagination. Not all books are going to do that for every person who reads it.
That’s why I don’t believe all the critics when they praise or disparage something that someone wrote.
There’s lots of creative work out there that’s meaningful to a lot of people that isn’t respected by academics.
I think people want books that are relevant to our current time.
Bird
”…but people do still read. If they didn’t, Barnes&Noble would have gone out of business in the 90s….”
I am currently reading Watership Down to the wife, it was my favorite book as a kid and I was surprised at how much more complex the vocabulary is then the average book today….sure people are reading but the quality of what they read is much lower and iirc “dumbest generation grows up” goes into how the lower quality of fiction people consume produces people with flatter characters irl.
Ad a Gen X I am disturbed by how much stupider old people are today vs when I was a kid, when I am
an old person the quality will have dropped dramatically and when millennials get to be old people God help the world.
Somewhat related… …a current shift in the retail music industry…
Friday July 24, 2026 – WFAA News – Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas
Subscription fatigue and nostalgia drive CD sales at North Texas record store
102 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P01T9JHFfp8
July 21, 2026 – WKOW – Madison, Wisconsin
CD sales are rising and its music to record stores’ ears
108 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wUc81XObfc
Twenty-five years ago when I had my book business (retail stores/wholesale warehouse & online-wholesale), I often would buy new CDs on the cheap. My costs would range between 10 cents and a dollar depending upon how many pallet-gaylord-containers and the type of CD label. 50 cents was my most common cost. Many CDs were ‘mixes’ like ‘Hits of the 60’s’ or had a theme like ‘Relaxation’, but there were also CDs containing music from a famous artist/group.
Is there a TLDR for this article?
That was (an attempt at) a joke.
I looked up the acronym. Thanks, it may help me one day with a crossword puzzle.
I also went to look up the acronym, but the definition was Too Long so I Did not Read it.
The fall into disrepair due to disinterest is a theme that runs through local government. Working hard to turn the tide in my little patch of the world.
Whilst you can, before the mayoral dictatorships engulf England.
Thank you for this article, maybe you’re right, I would not be too surprised considering what is going on now. Propaganda and manipulation have always been among us.
I’d heard that Alexander had plundered the Library before it was burnt (at least partially)… and Sciences and Philosophy were stolen from Egypt. “Stolen Legacy” the Alternative Case for the Origin of Greek Philosophy by George G.M. James is vey interesting.
Very good advice, Foucault’s Pendulum from Umberto Eco is amazingly good in so many ways… I finished it a few days ago and enjoyed every word. I’ll probably read a third time in another 20 years!
I’m on another excellent book that I’m sure would be of interest to you : “Is the Bible from Heaven? Is the Earth a Globe?” by Alex Gleason (1890). Stunning…
There is also a vey interesting podcast about the “Climate change”(!) from James Delingpole with Valentina Zharkova… A Mathematician and Physicist who has been studying solar cycles /solar activities for years… It’s not at all what I was expecting :
Valentina Zharkova — Podcasts
I enjoyed the poetic style of this post. But I have a little struggle with the “facticity”.
BTW Here is some pro- giant data center propaganda couched in a transhumanist biography.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/hans-moravec-interview.html
Well thanks for putting that link up, a great interview, cheers.
I would add Captain’s Betty speech in Fahrenheit 451 to complement Jame’s adaptation of TS Elliot Hollow Men ending
You can read the whole thing here https://mediadwellers.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/beatty-speech-to-montag-excerpt.pdf
In the same spirit of The Atlantic article mentioned in the newsletter, there’s the wonderful essay by Christine Nystrom – Literacy as Deviance
https://cdn.wildapricot.com/207668/resources/Documents/etc-44-2-literacy-as-deviance-by-christine-nystrom.pdf
I happen to believe that a lot of knowledge has been lost to history. Graham Hancock who has done a lot of research over the years on ancient civilizations sees a real problem with only 6000 years of human history as he points to the discovery of a human skull (not to different from modern man) which claims to be 315,000 years old. Indeed, in over 315,000 years man could have destroyed all civilization 50 times by now. And yet each time some humans may have survived to start over from nothing.
Anyway it is an interesting thought that past civilizations may have developed knowledge beyond what we have today in different areas of knowledge and then destroyed nearly all evidence of their existence. With the real threat of a massive Nuclear weapons exchange, it is possible that all advances in human civilization over the last 6000 years could cease to exist leaving the few that survive in well stocked bunkers with nothing to live on after 10 years or so. Then, perhaps they crawl out of their hole and find some vegetation to exist on. Who knows, perhaps they will eat each other for a number of generations.
Many of the psychopaths we have allowed to rule over us are certainly capable of pushing a button to destroy all mankind if their existence is threatened, and Trump may be one of them. So, I guess all we can do, is hope and pray that there is a spiritual life after death for those that earn it. In any case, I believe it is those that seek an after life that are doing the most to prevent the total destruction of this one.
“Hope & prayer”? Neither are doing – hope = dreaming, praying is asking someone else to do it. If you believe in immortality doesn’t that devalue life? Think about it.
Thanks for the link to Did UK intelligence stage the Salisbury Novichok attack? – Propaganda In Focus. For some reason I am endlessly fascinated by the (absolutely bonkers) Skripal affair. This very long article is really interesting and contains information that I hadn’t read elsewhere despite my ongoing obsession.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention the works of Aristotle being lost in a fire at Alexandria. This – according to Ayn Rand – was responsible for 1200 years of mysticism, superstition, e.g., religion. When 25% were recovered in a library in Persia, we got “The Magna Carta”- beginning a new era for mankind or as she put it: “A little reason goes a long way.”
when we were learned-up about the burning Alexandria library (back in 7th grade), intuition filled in the teachers blanks with, “no way could the only big collection of writings just get tossed into a blaze. The bosses of the time would of seen value and its likely cached away in some clifftop castle or one of those monasteries on a rocky spire or in the Vatican, or under some obelisk. and likely the knowledge is being used to hold advantage over humanity by the deepest rock bottom of moogaldom (aboriginal: “naughty”)
that kinda fits with what Ayn Rand claims about the magna carta being inspired from ancient writings (sorta like the Declaration of Independence being inspired by Iroquois or woodlands peoples law).
not too sure why you say “believing in immortality devalues life” ? On that subject, I muse that a hierarchy of consciousness expresses as mortal, immortal, and Devine. As mortals we are like ants looking up wondering why the great Nike in the sky keeps kicking our cities away. a few elder ants then signal “oh just some immortal demigod type throwing a tanty.”
The most commonly spoken Sanskrit mantra. Gaiatri, starts with “may there be peace on mortal immortal and Devine plains,,,”
“hope = dreaming, praying is asking someone else to do it.”
hope can be, effort to keep the dreaming positive
Prayer is hope on wheels
both express as varying degrees of chi pinging off a mortal, theres an electro magnetic plasmodial action taking place, that others can feel. if one can do it with enough conviction, shit happens.
I enjoyed the ending nod to T.S. Elliot.
I’m thinking that the ascendant Christianity of the time doomed the old pagan libraries.
Empirical enquiry and open minded discussion were replaced by 2000 years of unchallengeable dogma.
It feels like the Abrahamic religions are now reaching the end of their influence,
to be replaced, by what?
Dumbing down the populace to prevent the return of the dangerous classical philosophies is likely sound move by those wishing to control the future at this sensitive time.
I’ve read that AI companies are buying rare books and destroying them in the process of scanning them. I don’t know if this is actually true, but I wouldn’t put it past them. https://x.com/HedgieMarkets/status/2081534588485296565?s=20
Is anyine else having problems with their comment disappearing when they hit post?
Mishelle,
I haven’t run into that. However, when the page is refreshed the comment will fall into the proper queue sequence.
In the July Open Thread, James Corbett has a 14:30 minute Subscriber Exclusive Video – New Comment System – Subscriber Exclusive #141
Also, I logged some of the nuances with the Comment Box…
https://corbettreport.com/july-open-thread-and-new-comment-system-2026/#comment-188343
I missed the Livestream. Will it be posted for members?
“The modern Library of Alexandria is disappearing before our eyes. But it is not being consumed by flames. It is crumbling into disrepair as we scroll on to the next post.”
You are right, the Library isn’t being consumed by flames.
Actually it turns out the modern Library of Alexandria is disappearing before our eyes in a far more insidious way.
Instead of books being deliberately burned they are being shredded!
Check out this truly scary story of what is going on behind the scenes with books around the world.